24 May 2016 (Tuesday)
Its 0845 and the dogs are barking. I check out the kitchen window and I see Ernie pulling into the lot with his horse trailer. I go out and greet him as he unloads Kate and Sadie his 13 and 15 y/o Belgian mare mules. While Ernie decks out the mules with collars, hames, harness and hooks up various chains and singletrees, Johnny, my 70 something busybody (in a good way) neighbor stops to observe and talk about his mule working days. Becky comes out and starts taking pictures including getting some with my sawmill in the foreground.
Once connected Becky jumps on her ATV and heads up the hill to get pictures of us coming up the steep hill in the pasture through the stand of 90 y/o Norwegian spruce trees. Ernie is nearly running behind the mules and quickly realize how out of shape I am for this kind of work.
At the top of the pasture we follow the ATV road to the steep draw in the center of our property, through the aluminum gate and up into the woods a couple hundred yards to where I had previously cut and bucked two large tulip poplar trees into 8’, 12’ and 16’ logs for a client order. The tops up to 10”-12” in diameter were also cut into 8’-25’ logs for future cutting and bucking.
We have had a lot of rain over the past few weeks and the trail is very slippery. Ernie is concerned about the slippery trail which also includes some large flat rocks as it is a major runoff area. Ernie selects an 18’ log about 16” in diameter at the top end, drives his “grabs” consisting of two 6” long hooks connected by about 14” of heavy chain/loops. While he does this Kate and Sadie stand obediently waiting for the next command. Ernie grabs their reins/lead and yells “Haw” and they turn left and walk parallel to the log. Next Ernie halts them and tells them to back up. They do and he hooks a big hook on a drawbar into the grab chain and yells “Giddyup” and away they go down the trail. Ernie has to stop them several times while he shifts from the left to the right side to avoid trees and rock piles in his way.
They continue a couple hundred yards, out the gate, left and down a dip and up the trail to a big bench or flat area in the pasture. It is so steep and so slick the mules have trouble getting traction and pulling the heavy log. Sadie goes to her knees a couple of times. Ernie has the back them up and lunge forward several times to get enough weight to reach the level area. The mules head forward but get too close to the edge and the log rolls over the edge. It is too steep to retrieve so Ernie and I discuss a new path straight down the hill and through the yard instead of through the spruce patch. Ernie swaps log ends with the grabs and heads down the hill towards our house.
About halfway down the pasture the grade changes and the log rolls sideways. Ernie turns the mules and they control and stop the roll and continue forward repeating this rolling a couple more times before they get into the yard. In the drive the gravel prevents the mules from pulling so I hook my Dodge P/U to the log and pull it down the access road to the pasture. Once in the pasture I lose traction and the mules take over again and move the log into place above where I will place my saw when we are done.
Throughout the morning Ernie, Kate and Sadie continue pulling logs down the slope. The smaller logs, including one 17’ long maple log from a broken topped tree, Ernie pulls up on the bench in the pasture for me to retrieve later with my ATV and log arch. The next big log we leave in my drive and decide to pull them there and I’ll get a neighbor with a tractor to finish pulling them. The rest of the bigger logs (130 to 355 bf estimates) Ernie stages by a big walnut halfway down the pasture.
I am truly impressed with Ernie and his mules. Ernie goes up the hill and a near run every trip while I generally ride the ATV. Once in the woods he halts the mules who stand while he leaves them unattended and untied to go drive in the grabs. Next Ernie directs the mules to the log and backs them up to get enough slack to hook the central hook on the drawbar into the grab chain. This entails bending over directly behind the mules and working with the equipment. The mules never move or make any attempt to kick or such. Without such a well trained team working in these conditions would have been impossible. At one point the mules pull and 12’ log and we find I didn’t saw it free and they are actually pulling a 16’ and the 12’ log. We stop them and I finish separating the logs with my chainsaw.
At 1300 we take a break, put the mules in my horse/mule stalls and I feed them the last gallon or so of my cracked corn. As we do this Mark, another busybody neighbor and a friend to Johnny pulls up and come to watch and talk. Mark is a repeat customer and old muleskinner and part time logger himself so he is impressed with the size and temperament of Kate and Sadie.
We go in to eat lunch, venison roast that has been cooking in a big oval cast iron roaster all morning with mushroom soup base and sweet and white taters, onion, and carrots with fresh cole slaw and whole kernel corn. Mark declines to come eat with us and leaves.
After a good lunch we resume our log hauling. Ernie has been brainstorming and comes up with a plan to connect a small long log to our saw logs with chains to keep them from rolling. We try the first one on a big 8’ butt log which are the worst to roll. Down the hill Ernie, Kate and Sadie go. This works like a charm! When we reach the drive, since it has dried out throughout the morning, I hook my truck to the logs and haul them to the sawing site in the pasture. I drive up on the side slope above the log pile, back up for slack, remove the short chain and grabs, then roll the log down to the pile and drive back out. I suspect I exceeded the Dodge recommended side angle in my return. Meanwhile Ernie is heading back to the log landing with the mules. I throw the grabs, chain and hammer into the back of Becky’s ATV (Mine is sick and in the shop) and help his hook up for the next pull.
Mark returns and comes out to watch. He is very impressed by Ernie’s “outrigger” solution to pulling logs on our steep WV side slopes. As he sits on the log pile and Ernie takes a big log down the hill Mark tells me “This guy really knows what he is doing!” Coming from Mark, that is a high compliment.
We make one last trek to the woods and pull out the last four small logs which Ernie stages on the bench. I see we have seven small logs there for future needs. I load all of the tools, cooler, saw, oil, gas, etc. into the ATV and close the gate as I come out.
The last log is a big 16’ log. Ernie brings it to the gate in the cross fence. On the other side is a runoff from the spring uphill and has been hard going for Kate and Sadie. By this time they don’t have the energy to pull this last monster through the rough going. I try hooking several long cables and a snatch block from the log to my truck down in the drive and pull it about 4’ till I hit the muck and break a cable. We leave it for another day.
I pull the last log out of the drive to the pile and I see we have 10 large logs from 8’ to 16’ long. There is plenty there to complete my order with stock logs and side lumber left over. I bring Ernie’s gear to his truck while he unhooks the mule’s gear and puts them in the trailer. Ernie had asked about some lumber to fix a stall for a new Haflinger mare he just bought so I go get several pieces of ash 1X6, 2X6 and 2X8 as part of his tip.
It is now nearly 1900 and except for lunch we have been pulling logs for a good nine hours. Becky has taken several hundred pictures of the process. We thank and settle up with Ernie and I assure him I will be calling him in the future and referring him to other friends and customers. Ernie says these are the biggest and most logs he has pulled and next time to cut them shorter! I agree as the long ones have been a bear to pull.
I often get people tell me they’d like some logs sawed into lumber but they can’t get their trees out of their woods. This may be a perfect solution with Ernie cutting and hauling the logs, me sawing lumber and the customer getting to use their own homegrown lumber. I have another customer who does custom furniture making so we can even take the process to the next level all with homegrown WV lumber.
Ernie is hooking up his mule while my neighbor stops to watch and talk. Mill in the foreground.
Average size log out of the wood and into the pasture.
Larger log going down the hill.
Pure genius! Log will slide on the steep slope but will not roll with the outrigger attached.
Side view with outrigger log.
Got this down pat - Ernie pulls the outrigger beside the staged log, We roll the log over onto the chains and Ernie hooks up the rigging with a special twist to prevent the chains from coming loose during transport.
Ten big logs ready to be sawed at the end of the day. Total of about 3,000 bf pulled today including a few that are still on the hill for future sawing.
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March 10, 2009, 07:16:47 AM
